'Not what we bargained for'

Wednesday

NORTH HORNELL — The Village of North Hornell may seek to re-examine some of its contractual agreements with the City of Hornell.

During Monday's meeting of the village board, trustees discussed whether or not the city was holding up its end of several agreements.

Trustee Frank Libordi took exception to a lack of street sweeping services being rendered this spring and summer.

"It's supposed to run once a week up Seneca Street, that hasn't happened all summer," he said.

The agreement for services was said to be part of the tax share agreement on the Hornell Plaza.

The board recognized that operator injury and equipment breakdowns prevented the runs.

The street sweeper returned to action in North Hornell last week, but Libordi insisted on discussing compensation over the lack of services with the city.

"It's a contract. They owe us some sort of compensation for that. You don't just violate one of the four standards of a contract and act like if we don't find out that it's not a big deal," he said.

Public Works Superintendent Richard Scavo said that it's been a problem for his crew.

"We have people mowing and dumping their grass into the street, we're out there shoveling it up," he said.

Additionally, the Department of Public Works continues to have disagreements with the city over the amount of sewage being pumped through the village. While water and wastewater infrastructure belongs to the city, the village is responsible for its maintenance.

Daily flows are up to an average of 433,000 gallons per day, with several days peaking over 500,000 gallons.

"Only 7.5 percent (32,215 gallons) of that is ours," Scavo said.

It was speculated that human error, or the over-sensitivity of a sonar sensor could be causing readings to be off. On some days last month, more sewage was supposedly coming in than was being pumped out, according to the readings.

"Can you find out so we can all be on the same page?" Libordi asked. "It seems like there's some deliberate action keeping us from getting there."

A recent generator fire at one of the village wastewater pump stations only added to problems, as well as the breakdown of the motherboard for a transfer switch, that will cost an estimated $4,322 to replace.

"This is what happens. We're at that 20 year (useful life) point, and things are starting to fail up there," Scavo said. “The system is not going to fail, but it’s in disrepair."

The board has been insisting that the city replace the pump station and take over its maintenance.

"We have to have the contract looked at with the city. They have 200 units being established at the airport that will be coming through our line, there's got to be a meeting between the village and city and we need to rectify this," Libordi urged.

Scavo provided a highlighted copy of relevant contractual clauses for the board to review.

A motion that was denied at the August meeting, to send out a request for proposal for municipal lawyers, was brought back up by Trustee Peter DiRamondo, who agreed that several contractual issues needed to be addressed. A draft request will be put together by interested board members.

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